/etc/lsb-release should be useful for that, and is less likely to be edited by a system admin. The “lsb” in the filename stands for “Linux Standard Base”; but I’m not sure how widely this file is implemented yet, even in distributions that aim for LSB-compliance.

]]>By: Sheerihttp://www.pythian.com/blog/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes/#comment-131314
Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:24:52 +0000http://www.pythian.com/blogs/672/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes#comment-131314I just learned this a month or so ago myself…..On Linux (I haven’t tried on other machines) /etc/issue will give you a more human readable result than uname -a will.

]]>By: David Edwardshttp://www.pythian.com/blog/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes/#comment-131299
Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:18:29 +0000http://www.pythian.com/blogs/672/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes#comment-131299Don’t forget the Unix Rosetta Stone as a key to things like this. I believe there are more than one of these now, so try a search for it: http://www.google.com/search?q=unix+rosetta+stone .
]]>By: Darrin Leboeufhttp://www.pythian.com/blog/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes/#comment-131294
Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:51:42 +0000http://www.pythian.com/blogs/672/how-to-find-out-the-machine-id-on-various-unixes#comment-131294Thanks Matt! Just to clarify – uname will typically print some system information and things like kernel name, node name processor architechture etc… The “HostID” is like a MAC address for a server in that is unique for each server.